Birthday week

I am so tired. Just spent the last three days partying it up nonstop (i.e. dancing to live music, singing karaoke, floating, playing pool, eating delicious food & drinking delicious drinks) with friends and family. I danced so hard on Thursday night that I woke up the next morning with head-banger's neck and shoulders (ouch!), which continued to plague me for the next two days. One of the many perils of getting older: longer recovery time.

In related news, this year's birthday mustache was incredibly soft. It kept tickling my nose, so I eventually repurposed it as a uni-brow and then a sideburn until it lost its stick and fell off. But while it was on my upper lip it did make me look a lot like my dad did in the '70s, so...I guess that's a plus?

It's been a wonderful celebration of life, but I might need a week to recover from all the fun I had. Which of course may affect the coming week's productivity regarding my ROW80 goals.

ROW80 Update
"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life."

Readjusting expectations, writing project plan

This week I did less writing than I intended because:

• I'm a little wiped out still from pushing so hard to finish the beta draft of WIP1 earlier this month;
• I've had more administrative tasks than usual as a result of bringing on some new editing work and a new coaching client (yay!);
• I got caught up in world building and character development for the short story I worked on this week, it turned into a idea for a novel, and I got overwhelmed/slightly depressed because I'm not sure where to go from here. I still want to write this short story, but now I feel like I have to plot an entire novel in order to get to the short story, and I don't have time or energy for that right now.

I was already a little behind schedule on the collection of short speculative fiction stories, but this week make me realize that I needed a) to adjust my expectations about how long it will take to finish these stories, and b) a new writing project plan to reflect that.

ROW80 2014, Round 2, Week 7

"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life." 

What I've learned from my revision process for WIP1:

1) At some point you have to let go of your vision and start working with what the book actually is.

2) Deadlines are totally helpful. External deadlines specifically. When pressed for time I seek the simplest available solutions to the biggest problems (rather than tackling little problems in complex ways). This is a good thing.

3) In future, plan for 2 weeks of initial processing (read: freak-out) after beta reader feedback. Not because feedback is bad/unhelpful but just because there will be so much I want to do on the ms and will get overwhelmed and not know where to start and freeze up for a while. Allow 2 weeks for that.

Maybe at some point I will be able to breathe through the panic and set myself a couple different revision deadlines - one for still trying to work toward the vision and one for letting go of the vision and working to finish the book I have - but I'm not there yet. I still find the panic paralyzing.

Interview with author Zoey Derrick

This month I'm pleased to bring you an interview with self-published romance author Zoey Derrick. Her first novel, Finding Love's Wings, was released in both ebook and paperback formats in May 2013. She is one of my editing clients and is also the person who has taught me the most about DIY book publicity. I'm thrilled that she agreed to do this interview and share her experiences with us.


I encourage you to connect with her on Twitter and Facebook and to check out her website, www.zoeyderrick.com

And with that, I'm pleased to bring you the interview.

ZOEY: I want to start off by saying thank you for having me on your blog today. Over the last 7 months you and I have worked very closely together on Finding Love’s Wings and we are coming back together again for Give Me Reason (Book 1 of The Reason Series) and I’m honored to be a part of your blog. I was so excited when you asked me for an interview and it means the world to me that we get to keep working together. <KISSES>

[Sione's note: Yes, she really is that sweet. Seriously, you should connect with her. She's awesome.]

What are your goals as a writer?

I want to create enjoyable, engaging stories that readers love. I want them to be able to relate to my characters, my settings, and my style and love every minute of what they’re reading. Of course, eventually, I would love to be a part of a publishing house and who knows, maybe even have an NYT or USA Today bestseller. For now though, I’d love to be an Amazon bestseller.

Tell us a little bit about your work(s) in progress.

How I got unstuck

Last week I blogged about how I felt stuck on the revision of my novella. I am happy to say that I got unstuck and finished the second draft over the weekend. (Woot!) The way that I got from stuck to unstuck was unexpected.

I wrote a creative non-fiction piece last week called "Shiva the Destroyer," which was a meditation of sorts on life changes. In it, I wrote:

Stuuuuuuuck!

As part of a creative non-fiction class I took during Spring term, I was required to write every day, revise at least two pages a week, and write and revise some longer pieces. I learned at least a couple important things about myself through this experience:

1. I am not afraid to "kill my darlings," as the saying goes. Which is to say that I can look at a piece objectively, see what's not working well for it, and take those parts out, even if I really like them.
2. Much harder for me is to add to a piece. Even when I have ideas about what to add, even when I recognize the imperfections in a piece, I face a fear that adding things will dilute what's already there or will change its meaning in a way I don't want or will otherwise just make the piece worse than it was before.